My score flashes up, a 14.9, and almost immediately, red switches to green and Dani’s up on the beam. She’s attacking her skills like a woman possessed. She’s angry, that much is super clear, as she hits every skill with authority, not a balance check or a wobble to be seen. She’s still pissed about bars, and I don’t blame her.
“Whoa,” Chelsea whispers at my side, equally impressed.
“Yeah,” I agree.
Finally, she’s almost done, lining up for her dismount. She throws herself into a back handspring and then another before launching up into a double Arabian, landing and not moving an inch. Stuck.
“Yes!” Chelsea and I shout together and pull Dani straight into a hug when she pops down from the podium with a huge smile on her face.
“Damn, girl,” I say, giving her one last squeeze.
Her score comes up as fast as mine did: a 14.4. What the hell? I stare at the judges in disbelief. The entire arena groans in displeasure, and a few whistles of protest pour out from the stands too. That felt like way more than a 14.4.
Dani shrugs, but it’s got to sting. She nailed the crap out of that beam routine. “Let’s go, Em!” she says, redirecting all of our attention to Emma mounting the beam.
She presses up to a handstand, lifting her entire body weight up onto her hands before lowering her legs into a split and holding for a second, showing the judges just how much control she has. She lowers her feet down onto the beam before standing up, arms raised over her head. Then she flips backward, back handspring, back handspring, into a layout. But when her feet hit the beam, she pops off, straight down to the mat, landing solidly on her feet, almost neatly, like it’s part of her routine.
It’s not.
That’s a fall.
Emma fell off beam.
Shaking her head and then gathering herself, Em climbs right back up, and it’s all smooth from there, not even a balance check, but there’s no undoing what happened.
Dani screwed up on bars.
Emma bombed on beam.
And now, before we have to rotate to floor, my eyes move over to the all-around qualifications and there’s my name, still at the top.
1.Audrey Lee
30.2
2.Daniela Olivero
